Tasting this new Irish ice cream was at the top of my to-do list as the Aer Lingus tires were still cooling down. I had been in contact with Jim Kirwan, who makes and distributes ice cream through his award-winning company, Cúlcow and had featured him in one of our spotlights. He delivers his delectable treats to restaurants and shops around Dublin on Thursdays and as luck would have it, that's the day I landed. We agreed to meet up.

Jim is humorous, enthusiastic, and driven in his love for the ice cream business. Cúlcow ships ice cream to households all over Ireland and allows customers to add a personal message on the tub (a great gift idea!). With flavors like honeycomb, hazelnut, and lemon curd Cúlcow has upped the game in the ice cream world.

Jim met us at Alchemy (more on that in a subsequent posting), just off Grafton Street, where we conferred about all manner of things before he brought us to see his freezer truck, which had been emptied of most — but not all — ice cream. He gave us a couple tubs to sample, and then we climbed into the truck cab for a ride back to our hotel. The trip gave me an appreciation for all of the different hats he has to wear to run his own ice cream company.